The document discusses a study conducted by Fundação Dom Cabral’s Petrobras Sustainability Core assessing the sustainability stage of Brazilian companies, involving 172 firms across various industries. While 98% of companies concur that sustainability should be a priority, many acknowledge a gap between commitment and actual practices, revealing that only 67% have dedicated sustainability teams and many sustainability initiatives are unmeasured. Overall, Brazilian corporations understand sustainability's importance but lack integration and implementation within organizational structures.

1. FE1302
Gestão Estratégica do Suprimento
e o Impacto no Desempenho das
Empresas Brasileiras
Reflections on the current sustainability stage
of Brazilian corporations
By Lucas Amaral Lauriano, Eduarda Carvalhaes and Rafael Augusto Tello Oliveira
Petrobras Sustainability Core
More than simply a fad theme, sustainability is to contemporary companies a fundamental issue to be
carefully considered. In Brazil, this reality should not be different. Many an aspect should be considered
as underlying this issue, which will directly interfere in the performance of organizations. They carry direct
impacts upon all corporate processes, and become determinants for business results.
For the purpose of assessing the sustainability issue in Brazilian companies through the lenses of different
aspects, Fundação Dom Cabral’s Petrobras Sustainability Core (NPS) developed a research effort
called “Estágio da Sustentabilidade das Empresas Brasileiras [T.N.: The Sustainability Stage of Brazilian
Companies], conducted by researchers Lucas Amaral Lauriano, Eduarda Carvalhaes and Rafael Tello.
The study included the participation of 172 companies from different Brazilian industries and regions. From
this total number of respondents, 69% are comprised by large companies with more than 250 employees.
As a backbone to the analysis, the investigation contemplated the seven main aspects of corporate
sustainability: the Sustainability Concept; Strategic Intent; Structure; Transparency; Issues management,
Stakeholder Relationship; and Leadership. Respondent and company profiling questions were also included.
Read the interview with Lucas Amaral about the seven aspects of the investigation, and the conclusions
derived and perspectives unveiled by the study.
Tell us how Brazilian companies
contemplate and define
sustainability.
C
ertainly. In our investigation, companies emphatically
agreed that organizations should be concerned with
environmental, economic and social issues, involving
their employees and the community. This shows us
that the sustainability concept is quite advanced in
Brazilian organizations. However, there is also a deep
understanding that many companies remain in their
speech vis-à-vis this theme only.
Notably, 98% of all companies concur in that
organizations should operate ethically, and 98% of
all companies believe that sustainability should be a
corporate priority. In turn, 87% of them believe that
many companies promote sustainability without being
really committed with it, and 31% of the companies
agree in that sustainability should be completely
voluntary without any law to regulate it.
What is the purpose of
sustainability in companies?
What do they intend to achieve
with it?
By analyzing our findings, we noted that the main strategic
intent of Brazilian companies as concerns sustainability is
related to reputation or financial gains from the use of fewer
natural resources. Besides, partnerships are also motivated
by reputation and innovation gains.

2. Data indicate that 92% of all companies concur in that
sustainability improves their reputation and image;
75% of them pursue the initiative of reducing costs by
means of efficiency improvements in materials use; and
74% of the respondents agree in that their companies
include sustainability as a part of their traditions and
values. Besides, 67% of the companies state that they
establish partnerships to extract financial gains from the
identification of innovation opportunities; 66% of them
state that they establish partnerships to improve their
reputation; and 48% of organizations heard resort to
sustainability as a marketing differential.
Is there an understanding of
the actions that can entail new
opportunities for companies via
sustainability-related initiatives?
Certainly. The most frequent initiative, as indicated by
75% of the respondents, is cost curbing by improving
efficiency in the use of materials. Increasing brand
awareness as “green” or socially responsible is, in turn,
the least accomplished initiative, indicated by 23% of
the respondents.
How are sustainability
responsibilities managed? Could
we say that sustainability actions
and sectors are “islands” within
the organization, or are they
somehow integrated?
Although Brazilian companies have already assigned
individuals or teams in charge of issues related
to sustainability, there are still procedures these
companies should develop. The absence of individual
goals established for the managers as concerns issues
entailing sustainability issues shows the dissociation
between the organizational structure and the integration
between the sustainability area and other areas.
This prompts the teams in charge of sustainability
to become “islands” within their companies. Another
important issue is training the teams from different
areas to deal with sustainability issues. Without this
individual awareness, achievement of the individual
goals established is jeopardized.
What were the findings obtained
by your investigation concerning
this topic?
Well, 67% of the Brazilian companies stated they
assigned somebody or a team to be in charge of
sustainability-related issues, and 63% of them believe
they have sustainability-related policies or statements.
On the other hand, 49% of the organizations state that
their individual managers are given goals relating to
employee education, training and career improvements,
compared to 48% who claim that individual managers
have their performance goals relatively to environmental
responsibility.
About transparency. Are
companies transparent today
vis-à-vis their environmental,
economic and social
performance?
We noted that Brazilian companies are now beginning to
report their sustainability-related activities; however many
environmental impacts caused by organizations have not
been measured yet, which quantitatively and qualitatively
jeopardizes the information contained in the reports. There
are some initiatives seeking to report this information, but
their ability to become inputs for managerial improvement
is limited by the lack of information on some activities.
Surveys indicate that 59% of the companies claim to report
sustainability-veered initiatives; 51% of them state they
measure the impacts of their environmental initiatives upon
their businesses; another 45% of the respondents claim to
measure the social impacts of their social initiatives; and
32% of them measure the impacts of their social initiatives
upon their businesses.
.
What is the companies’
response capability in terms of
sustainability policies, programs
and performance?
Some level of concern with the environmental impacts
caused by the activities developed by Brazilian companies
is already discernible, besides the conveyance of this
information to consumers, measuring performance
and seeking economic gains from the decrease
of environmental resource consumption in their
production lines. However, the same concern is not as
clear as concerns social issues, such as the inclusion
of economically underprivileged populations in the
marketplace as workers or as consumers. Besides,
emergent employee-related issues such as diversity and
human rights also need attention.
The main data referring to this item indicate that 71% of
the investigated companies claim to have environmental
responsibility-related goals and objectives; 66% of
them claim sustainable product and service-related
goals and objectives; 66% claim employee education,
Reflections on the current sustainability stage of Brazilian corporations
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3. training and career goals and objectives; and 55% of
the organizations state they have community supportrelated goals and objectives.
Do they indicate the areas they
consider priorities in this process?
Yes. Basing on the resources invested in community
support activities – such as money, time, and donations
in kind – we also asked the companies what were the
three priority areas in the past year. The area being given
the greatest attention from companies, as indicated by
52% of respondents, is professional training, followed
by education at 49% and environmental issues at 48%
of the response.
How do companies engage
themselves with their
stakeholders in this matter?
In the Brazilian case, it is possible to observe how
communication has developed with specific stakeholders,
such as customers and NGOs, but the weak relationship in
the establishment of partnerships with other stakeholders
shows the need to advance along these lines.
In percentage terms, the scenario is this: 61% of the
companies claim they discuss sustainability outside the
company with their stakeholders, such as suppliers,
consumers, regulators, NGOs, etc.; 57% of them claim
they involve themselves considerably in the provision of
training and development opportunities for lower-wage
employees; 52% of the interviews support balancing
working hours for all employees, including those
paid by the hour; 46% stated they are considerably
involved in offering training programs to people in
economically underprivileged communities; and, finally,
38% consider the possibility of hiring people from poorer
or underprivileged communities.
One of the essential issues in
this conversation has to do with
leadership. Could you say these
managers support sustainability
or pursue efforts to ensure it?
The most important factor for an organization’s corporate
sustainability is support from its leaders. In Brazilian
companies, leaders should be at the forefront of the
sustainability efforts, which does not happen significantly.
Besides, the Board does not clearly participate in
sustainability issues either. From respondent companies,
51% stated that the CEO leads the sustainability agenda
in the organization and an equal percentage emphatically
FDC Executive
agrees that the Board of Directors reviews and approves
the sustainability program.
Following the analysis of the
seven issues reviewed, let us look
at the issues that also deserve
reflection. For example, how can
Brazilian companies advance in
sustainability management?
The investigation clearly shows the dissociation between
the understanding of what sustainability is and its
application in organizations. The sustainability concept
is already understood by Brazilian companies, but we
noted that these companies are not yet ready to deal
with socioenvironmental requirements from their different
stakeholders. For Brazilian organizations to advance, it is
necessary to build internal capabilities such as to bridge
the gaps unveiled by the investigation.
Before closing, a question is
inevitable: how to ensure that
sustainability is not just “the
fad of the day” but, instead, a
principle to be factored into the
organization’s DNA?
This is a very important question. The first point to
be observed is the need to raise the awareness of all
people in the organization. It is of no avail to install a
sustainability area working in isolation, or without the
due understanding by the remainder of the organization.
In the same vein, it is of no avail having a conscious
leader who demands global sustainability goals for
the company when his employees do not understand
sustainability and how it is managed.
Therefore, there should be a major awareness-raising
process involving all areas and sectors, with the purpose
of demonstrating sustainability as a strategic, transversal
theme directly influencing the organizations performance,
and not only a beautiful ideal involving environmental,
economic and social issues.
Would a pathway to this be the
creation of goals involving all
employees?
Certainly. It is necessary to establish individual goals,
because we observed a disparity between the existence
of some goals for the entire organization and for individual
managers. Besides, several sustainability aspects
deserve attention, such as human rights and diversity.
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4. Would seeking new partnerships
be another important strategy?
Mention a few aspects that can
still be approached.
Yes. To deal with these new themes, many organizations
noted the need to seek partnerships with other actors,
such as schools, companies pursuing the same activities
and having the same suppliers. Therefore, establishing
partnerships with different stakeholders is an alternative
for the construction of internal capabilities in Brazilian
companies, prompting organizations to move towards a
more advanced corporate sustainability stage in the future.
The research opens myriad possibilities by means of
several questions that can be incorporated. We wrote a
list including a few of them, to wit:
What conclusions have you
reached with your investigation?
The sustainability stage approach proves interesting
because it presents the opportunity of comparison along
time. Because of the investigation, it was possible to
extract a sample of how sustainability management is
in Brazilian companies. The sample of 172 Brazilian
companies is concentrated on large-sized organizations,
and future editions will exact more responses from micro,
small and medium sized businesses. Concerning Brazilian
states, the research effort included representatives from
the entire country; however, the north and northeastern
regions are still weakly represented. Therefore, future
editions will seek more respondents from these regions.
•• How to create internal capabilities in the companies?
•• How to balance stakeholders’ requirements with the
companies’ capacity to entertain them?
•• Why isn’t sustainability awareness as a strategic
theme a business priority?
•• How to change business goals into personal goals?
•• What types of projects require companies to partner
with their different stakeholders?
Anything else to add for the
future?
These questions are but a few of the many roused by the
study and provide inputs for future investigations. There
is also the possibility of writing case studies of companies
that are in higher sustainability stages for the purpose of
playing a role model for organizations at lower stages.
Another possibility is the use of the methodology to review
a specific company’s sustainability management seeking
improving its action along the issues reviewed.
Tell us about the perspectives of
this effort.
So far, we have concentrated upon the global research
results. However, because of the wealth and amount of
data harvested, several other studies could have been
pursued with the objective of verifying the stages of
sustainability in the different industries, activity segments
and even perception by respondent age.
The full Research Report can be found at the Petrobras Sustainability Core site:
http://www.fdc.org.br/pt/pesquisa/sustentabilidade/construcao/Paginas/conteudo.aspx
Reflections on the current sustainability stage of Brazilian corporations
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